Blackpool Airport: Memories of direct flights to Blackpool as Benidorm star Sherrie Hewson backs reopening
You shared your memories of flying into Blackpool Airport, as Benidorm star Sherrie Hewson calls for a return to commercial flights into the resort.
Readers’ fondly remember the days when they could fly directly to Blackpool, saying we ‘need more celebrities to jump on the bandwagon and get the airport back up and running’.
Kath Bird recalls the emotional atmosphere of being on the last ever commercial flight into Blackpool. “The air hostesses were crying and the pilots shook our hands at the bottom of the stairs. Sad.”
Many visitors to the resort loved the convenience of flying directly to Blackpool, without having to go to Liverpool or Manchester.
Gary Gillatt said: “I used to fly up from London on a Friday night with friends for a weekend clubbing - and generally messing around - in Blackpool, then fly back on a Sunday afternoon. Great days, and all our money pouring into the local economy.”
Comments came after Benidorm star, Sherrie Hewson, said that bringing back commercial flights to the resort would greatly help Blackpool’s bid to be City Of Culture 2029.
Derrick Oldham said: “We need more celebrities to jump on the bandwagon, and get the airport back up and running. Well done Sherrie and well said.”
Darren Ogle regularly travels throughout the year from Belfast, adding: “It would be amazing to fly direct to Blackpool again instead of having to fly into Manchester then travel up.”
Some, however, said that the airport ‘never generated enough users’, and that there are ‘too many houses’ in the surrounding area now.
Sherrie said, in an exclusive interview with the Blackpool Gazette: “City of Culture did wonders for Liverpool a few years ago but they need to open the airport.
“With that, they'll be on their way for lifting it right back up again, just got to spend the money. I know that there's a lot of problems with debts and things like that, which there is in this whole world right now.
“But wouldn't City of Culture be fantastic for Blackpool? It would put it really back on the map. I'll be there, and I'll go and fight for them, because I just think they really, really need it and deserve it.”